Borders bookstores filed for bankruptcy, closing about 200 of its 642 stores. Every one of them was a superstore.
It’s sad to see a 40-year-old chain go through this. I remember when Borders bought-out the mall-based book chain Waldenbooks, and now they’re the ones filing for bankruptcy! The big fish eats the little fish, and then a bigger fish comes along. The cycle of business life, I suppose. The Lion King Circle of Life is ringing in my head.
Some have blamed the Amazon-sized Amazon for Borders’ demise or the astonishing boom of e-books – also Amazon’s fault. While some are blaming outside influences for the Borders’ bankruptcy, there has been speculation it has to do more with the atmosphere inside of Borders.
If you’ve been inside a Borders, you may already know what I’m referring to. They have unnecessarily large spaces, gross lighting, minimal staff – usually lacking a passion for books, nothing is cozy; this is the plight of the big-box book sellers: Cold and unappealing to people – soulless.
Dropping a Starbucks inside your Walmart-sized book warehouse doesn’t make it cozy.
Tyler Brûlé wrote in the Financial Times about the ideal downtown book nook:
Ask most people to paint a picture of their perfect bookstore and it probably involves a pair of bay windows housing a selection of titles specially selected by the shop’s long-serving staff. Through the front door (complete with a brass bell) there are well-worn harvest tables with stacks of new releases, solid classics, cash-generating genres and obscure but wonderfully readable selections from loyal customers. The oak floors are dark and well worn and they probably creak and sag a little. There’s a wonderful scent of various papers, ink, glue, linen, card-stock and toxic varnishes, and in certain corners of the shop a jazzy tune can be heard through crackly old speakers. Scattered about are armchairs for children to read and pensioners to pause and there are plenty of decently paid staff to advise on cookbooks for the helpless, picture books to calm hyper tots, and travel guides to less-explored corners of Turkey.
The male staff wear cosy cardigans and the women favour loafers, kilts and turtlenecks for an overall effect that says these people look like they know what they’re talking about and therefore I’ll buy whatever they suggest. Perhaps the most important detail is that you can see all the way to the back of the shop from the front door but once inside you discover there are enough cosy nooks and corners to get lost in an absorbing first chapter.
Mmmm, I want to go there!
It makes purchasing an e-book via a Kindle seem sterile, but at least you can do it from the comfort of your cozy home, with a cup of fresh French-pressed coffee.
This is why Borders went bankrupt.
Mission.
It was their mission to sell books cheap, ironically, at any cost.
The downtown book nook’s mission is to be a place for book lovers.
What is the church’s mission?
You can drop a Christian Café inside a Walmart-sized warehouse, but that doesn’t mean you’ve succeeded. You can build an Amazon-sized website, but that doesn’t mean you’ve succeeded, either.
Success is defined by fulfilling the mission of the Gospel. If the church doesn’t keep its focus on that mission, it will end up bankrupt like Borders.
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